If you’re new to macros you’ve got to familiarize yourself with the most important macro terminology. This is your easy-access guide to all things macros!

Macros – short for Macronutrients. Macros are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. You need a balanced combination of each of these macros for a healthy diet.

1 gram of protein = 4 calories

1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories

1 gram of fat = 9 calories

Macro Counting – is also known as ‘aware eating’. It’s knowing where calorie consumption is broken down into protein, carb, and fat calories and grams per day.

Protein builds and repairs muscles, increases metabolism, encourages fullness, and boosts immunity. Some popular protein sources include chicken breast, low-fat ground turkey, fish, whey protein powder, and lean ground beef.

Carbohydrates provide daily energy, are an excellent source of training fuel, and increase brain function. Some popular carbohydrate sources include brown rice, pasta, wheat bread, and potatoes.

Fat encourages healthy hormone levels, improves nerve function, and facilitates vitamin transport. A few healthy fat options include avocado (the fruit and the oil), olive oil, and coconut oil. Use these sparingly but don’t cut them out entirely.

Cutting is the phase of the nutrition cycle when you consume fewer calories than you burn which enables you to lose weight. It’s also known as eating ‘in a deficit’. You’re eating below your daily maintenance calories.

Maintenance is the phase of the nutrition cycle when you consume the same number of calories that you expend in a day. Doing this will enable you to maintain your current weight.

Bulking is the nutrition phase where you eat above the number of calories you burn each day. In this phase, you’ve got to be mindful of the type of calories you consume so that you can convert those excess calories to muscle, rather than unwanted fat. This phase can also be called eating ‘in a surplus’.

A Plateau happens when there has been no change in weight loss or fat loss for 4+ consecutive weeks. This can happen when you’ve miscalculated the calories in/calories out that you’re actually getting, a result of medication, a hormonal imbalance, or possibly another underlying health condition.

Reverse Dieting is a system used to incrementally add calories back into your diet. Typically takes place following a cut cycle, often incorporated to break a plateau. Calories are added in systematically to increase metabolism and daily maintenance calories without piling on a ton of extra weight.

Flexible Dieting is a nutrition protocol for counting macros that allows you to eat 80/20. This means 80% whole foods and 20% fun foods. This protocol works really well because it means there are no good foods or bad foods. 

IIFYM is an acronym for ‘If It Fits Your Macros’. Similar to flexible dieting above, IIFYM means that if it fits your daily goal, you can have it. Nothing is off limits. Everything is on the table. 

Macro Nutrition is an easy-to-use, easy to maintain weight loss protocol. This is the most effective system I’ve seen and I wouldn’t recommend it if it hadn’t worked for me and for thousands of my clients as well. 

Grab our How To Track Macros Guide here: https://www.gtransformationacademy.com/howtotrack